Ex-WaMu Board Member Dares Lightning to Strike Him

By Mark Gongloff

Bloomberg

In an effort to find out just what it takes to induce a direct lightning strike on his person, a former board member of Washington Mutual is circulating a petition to get President Obama to denounce Occupy Wall Street, accusing the protesters of wanting government handouts.

According to the American Independent, Tom Leppert, a former mayor of Dallas who is now running for U.S. Senate, writes on his website, endoccupy.com:

The Occupy Wall Street crowd represents the same flawed values that got our country into this economic mess. They possess a false sense of entitlement and think they should be receiving government handouts and run up the debt on an imaginary credit card by making hard-working Americans and future generations pay for the bill.

Got that? The protesters want “government handouts,” unlike the banks they’re protesting against, which have of course never asked the taxpayers, and future generations of taxpayers, to cover any of their ghastly debacles.

Certainly not like Washington Mutual, which was the biggest bank failure in U.S. history and which had $8 billion in debt when it croaked in 2008.

The American Independent, which first reported this story, and Business Insider both imply that Mr. Leppert might care a little less about ending the occupation of Wall Street than about getting a bunch of email addresses to help boost his pitiful fundraising efforts.

BI’s Lisa Du writes:

He just had one of the worst fundraising quarters in his race for the Senate – raising only $640,000, of which $500,000 was his own money, (see update below) according to The Houston Chronicle. That’s compared to the $1 million his competitor, former Texas solicitor general Ted Cruz, raised.

Update: Lisa got the initial figure wrong — Mr. Leppert actually raised $640,000 and made a personal contribution of $500,000, for a total of $1.14 million — not as pitiful! Lisa has corrected her post.

It’s also worth noting that WaMu didn’t directly get a bailout — but the banking industry did get a bailout, including J.P. Morgan Chase, which absorbed WaMu assets at a deep discount after WaMu melted down.

Comments (5 of 18)

In reality, though, I care about what the companies are telling us, and I try to form a worldview, an outlook based on what real business people not politicians, bureaucrats, strategists or chartists tell me.

6:42 pm October 19, 2011

Wayne Barnes wrote :

Not lightning but a thunder bolt - even now thousands of people are dazed from Washington Mutual ldevastating drop.

7:12 pm October 18, 2011

Stich Jones wrote :

“God bless them for their spontaneity,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi gushed. “It’s young, it’s spontaneous and it’s focused. And it’s going to be effective.” Yeah, it’s going to be effective, all right. The Occupy Wall Street crowd, while defecating on police cars and demanding giveaways, has effectively become the face of the modern-day liberal Democratic Party.

4:15 pm October 18, 2011

Dallasite wrote :

Leppert is a liar and a crook. Look at Dallas and what happened not only with the city-owned hotel (because we really needed that, right?) but the "Trinity Toll-Road" and our levee system. We've got a big fancy bridge and roads in need of repair. Everyone was lied to (it won't cost the tax-payers anything!" and now half of s might have to buy flood insurance. The man should be put on trial.

3:22 pm October 18, 2011

l9438 wrote :

Its not hard to believe how far a Republican will go just to get money. This is typical of all freaking politicians.
As the Joker once said, "This Country Needs a Republican Enima".

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